


Far Beyond the Trees

by Keolah



Category: Green Sky Trilogy - Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Planescape
Genre: Airships, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen, Giant Trees, Magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-18 03:17:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5896057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Keolah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world of giant trees, a blight is spreading. A few people try to escape the disease, and perhaps find a way to stop it, by taking to the air.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Everyone's a stranger under these great, big skies

All eyes were on the stranger as he walked into the tavern. Clad in leather, blade upon his back, hat upon his head, completely out of place amidst the locals in their leaves and soft silks. Whispers around him, he walked up to the curved wooden bar.

"What need you, stranger?" the bartender said.

"Call me Jack. What've you got?" the man drawled. "Drinks, food, news, info?" The words were all correct, but something still sounded off about them.

"There are drinks," the bartender said. "I fear that for what else you need, you must seek elsewhere."

"Fine, fine," Jack said, waving a hand lazily. "What's there to drink around here, then?"

"There is wissenberry wine, tree-cow milk, poison-frog spirits, spice whiskey, and rainwater."

"Tree-cow?" Jack wondered. "You've got cows up in these trees?"

"They are the female of a large species of sloth."

"Sloths give milk?" Jack said, looking increasingly incredulous, then waved a hand. "Never mind, never mind, don't answer that."

"I would have expected queries regarding the frog spirits, and not the cows," the bartender said.

"Nah, all booze is poison, anyway. I'll take the whiskey, but first, what sort of money do you use up here? Don't want to have to mop the floors and do the dishes to pay for it."

The bartender looked at him and sighed. "You are clearly not of this tree. There are leaf tokens used here. What have you?"

"Don't got any fluttery leaves," Jack said, pulling out a pouch. "Just got these." He pulled out a copper coin, flicked it in the air, caught it with a gloved hand, and placed it on the bar.

"What is this? Stone?"

"Metal," Jack corrected.

The bartender's eyes widened. "This is a great wealth that you have! It is far greater in value than that of these beverages."

"I just want a whiskey, unless you've got stuff you can tell me about your tree here," Jack said.

"Here," the bartender said, placing a wooden mug before him and filling it with an amber liquid. "And here are leaf tokens for you." He placed a handful of leaves marked with symbols beside it. "There is a chamber upon the limb above this one, the Hall of Memories. You may be able to find what it is you seek there. If you need a place to rest, there is a hostel further out on this limb."

Jack pocketed the leaves. "Thanks, but no, I'll just sleep on my _ship_."

"Pardon?"

Jack scowled. That word didn't get translated by his amulet. No great surprise, there. "Flying house," he tried.

"How is it a house if it is not a part of the tree?" the bartender wondered.

"It's more like a bird," Jack tried to explain. "A really big bird." He shrugged.

"You travel by strange means, but then, you are strange."

Jack chuckled. "You're always a stranger when you go new places. But riddle me this, bar-man. Is the one who comes to your tree the stranger, or is everyone who lives in this tree?"

The bartender looked at him flatly, and didn't answer.

"We're all strangers to each other. Everyone's a stranger under this great, big sky. And it's wonderful." He knocked back the whiskey. "Thanks for the drink."

Jack left of the tavern, pushing aside the leafy door covering, and strolled out onto the great limb, wider than a small village. Far above, sunlight filtered in green from beyond the canopy. Far below, the trunk of the tree, already distant from here, extended down into much more distant darkness. But no one looked down. No one but the stranger.

And above him, he thought he could make out the hall that the barkeep had mentioned, a large, sprawling building with ornate designs and leaf-covered windows. A ladder made of vines offered a short route up, but Jack felt more comfortable ascending the staircase made of large fungi around the trunk, alongside the young and infirm.

At the next limb intersection, a young girl came up to him curiously. She couldn't have been more than seven or eight. "Hi!" she said brightly. "You look strange."

Jack chuckled. "Yep. Call me Jack. What'll I call you?"

The girl looked at him thoughtfully for a long moment, examining him from every angle, before finally answering, "Teregia."

"Nice to meet you, Teregia," Jack said. "Don't suppose you could tell me how to get to the Hall of Memories from here? Think I wound up on the wrong limb."

"Oh!" Teregia said, grabbing his hand. "Come, this way." She showed him over to a different fungal walkway. "Where are you from?"

Jack grinned crookedly. "You're the first person up these trees to ask me that."

"Why?" Teregia asked with bright-eyed innocence.

Jack shrugged. "Don't seem to want to see anything beyond the leaves."

Teregia ran a hand along the bark and said quietly, "They don't want to see what's inside the trees, either. There's rot. There's sickness. This tree is dying."

Jack didn't even bother to question why she thought that or how she could tell. "Yeah, probably not something any of them want to hear anytime soon, up until their treehouses fall out of the sky."

"There will be much time," Teregia went on. "Trees live long and die slow. But I can feel it. The tree isn't well." She looked to Jack. "What tree are you from? Is it well there?"

"I'm from a different _world_." There was no way to say 'world' in their language. "I'm from far beyond the trees," Jack said. "I've seen places your people might only have dreamt of. I've walked under different skies, where the sun shines bright without the leaves. I've seen places where there's so much water you can't see the other side. I've seen hot places where there's no trees and it almost never rains. I've seen cold places where the rain is white and soft. I've seen trees of metal and crystal with no leaves."

" _World_ ," Teregia repeated, wide-eyed. "These are different _worldi_?"

" _Worlds_ ," he corrected gently, and nodded. "There are more _worlds_ out there than there are leaves upon your tree."

"Where will I go, when the leaves fall and the trees all die?"

"Anywhere you want, Teregia," Jack replied. "Anywhere at all."


	2. We cannot stave off the blight forever

The skyship didn't come again. Teregia always wondered where it went, what sort of places it was visiting, what sort of skies Jack was now walking under.

As she walked the quiet limbs of Nimiden, she had to carefully avoid bumping into people drunk on joyberry wine. It wouldn't do to lose her grip on her great-granddaughter and send her falling from the branches into the darkness below.

"Come on, Elpida," Teregia whispered. "Let's get you home."

"Mama?" said the girl.

"If you're good, I'll tell you a story," Teregia. "A tale of different skies..."

* * *

Ziton lifted his hands and sang softly to the wood, coaxing it into a different shape. A little this way, a little that. He feared it would not hold up under the strains it would be put under, and he was certain that that the wood would die, but he would find a way to make it live, even as brown leaves fell around him.

"I can't believe that this limb can hold that enormous house," Trikotos commented, running a hand along the living wood. "Will it really fly, like a bird? There is no way this could fly. It has wings made of leaves!"

"It'll fly, Triko," Ziton assured him. "There is magic in the ship, all that we have."

"It's a strange word," Triko said. "Ship."

"There is an old legend, told to me by my grandmother," Ziton said, stepping back and looking up at the house hovering in the air. "There are people, she told me, who lived in houses that flew like birds, not attached to any trees, and traveled in different skies. It's hard to believe places like that really exist. But Nimiden is dying, and other trees aren't well either. I don't know why they are sick. We druids have been keeping them alive, but we cannot cure them. We cannot stave off the blight forever."

"Will the skyship be different? There is no way it can live without a tree."

"It's smaller," Ziton said. "There is magic druids have that should be able to sustain it, for a time, and with it, a portion of Nimiden's spirit. I know not how long. Maybe forever. Maybe it will die the moment it leaves the limb and tries to fly. I wish I knew."

"There is no hope," Triko said. "We are doomed to darkness. The monsters in the shadows below the trees will surely destroy us."

Ziton sighed. "There is not space for all of us, to be certain. There are fewer of us than before, in the time before the blight, but still there are many who will stay behind. If the skyship works, there may be more grown. There is hope still."

"But where will we go, if the trees are dying?"

"Far beyond the trees, to places we might have only dreamt of," Ziton answered.

"What if there are no places beyond the trees?" Triko asked skeptically, folding his arms across his chest. "Are we to fly forever, then?"

Ziton climbed up onto the floor of the skyship, gently swaying at the end of the limb. "We will find a place where new trees will grow. We will sing life into the darkness. We will hold off the monsters."

"You speak nonsense," Triko said. "You ask the impossible."

"Then stay, if you think there is no hope," Ziton snapped. "Stay and let the blight destroy you too. Stay and let the darkness devour you. I seek to find another world. I seek different skies."

* * *

Two dozen people on board, the skyship let go of the limb like a falling leaf, but it didn't fall for long. Wings grown of leafy branches spread out from each side of the ship, two on each side and two smaller ones at the end like a tail. Buoyed by magic, the ship floated into the sky. They were flying.

"Levitation magic holding," Orana said distantly, hands upon the control branches. "Tree-spirit responsive. Nimishi lives."

"I don't believe it," Triko breathed, leaning against the railing. "We're really flying."

"I don't know why you're even on board, Triko," Ziton said tiredly. "There were far more worthy people who could have come with us, and wouldn't have been just a drain on Nimishi's fruits."

Triko snorted softly. "And what if you face trouble? There are dangers in the skies. There are dangers beneath the trees. You don't know what you will find. I can fight. You need me more than anyone else."

"Protective bubble holding," Orana reported. "Approaching the canopy."

As they passed by the branches, the green leaves of the canopy, the ones stubbornly remaining green, brushed against the invisible barrier surrounding the ship as though pushed aside by the passing of a giant sloth. The further they ascended, the thinner the leaves became and the brighter the light filtering down upon them. Then finally, they cleared the last of the leaves, and the naked sun shone down upon them.

"By all the tree spirits..." Ziton breathed, shielding his eyes from brightness.

"I never imagined the sun above the trees," Triko said. Even he was unable to conceal his wonderment. "I never thought the day could be so bright. I never thought of light that pained me to gaze upon."

Ziton looked away from the sky and chuckled. "Glad you came along now, Triko?"

It seemed strange to look upon the trees from above them. A carpet of leaves, bright and green, stretched as far as the eye could see. From up here, one could almost believe that the blight didn't exist. But here and there, amongst Nimiden's canopy, a leaf was edged with brown. He didn't know if there was hope of saving Nimiden, never mind all of the trees, but if there were a way, he would find it. And if there were a way to grow new trees, like the flowers that were reborn every year, that too he would seek answers to.

"Course, Captain Ziton?" Orana asked.

Ziton made a face. "Do you have to call me 'captain'?"

"You command this team."

"You children of Paranden are always intent upon organizing everything," Ziton said with a sigh. "Fine. Set a course east. Take us into the places the sun comes from. Let's see what lies beyond the dawn."


	3. When in Ilden, do as the Ildi do

Skyship Nimishi flew in to the next tree ahead. Many trees beyond, they were far enough from home that they didn't even know its name. Ziton stepped off the ship, arms outstretched in a peaceful gesture toward the frightened and confused people who lived there.

"Be at ease," Ziton assured them. "We mean you no harm. We come of Nimiden, far to the west."

"You've come to Ilden, stranger," said an old woman, approaching them. "The name's Sofia."

"Are you the elder of this limb?" Ziton asked.

Sofia chuckled. "No, I'm just some old woman who happened to be standing here when you came in to stick your giant tree-bird right next to my house."

Triko barked a laugh, and hopped over the railing and onto the limb. "I like this one, Ziton." He gestured to her with an open palm. "My name is Trikotos, but people call me Triko."

"I shall keep watch over the ship," Orana said, not leaving the control branches.

"Ah, Orana, I don't think our team is going to steal it," Triko said. "Not that they'd know how to fly it without you."

"There will be others," Orana said. "I will teach them."

"Good, because I'd hate to have to figure it out from scratch," Triko said.

"So," Sofia butted in, peering around us to take a good look at the ship. "What _is_ that thing you're flying in, anyway?"

"We call it a skyship," Ziton said. "Or a ship, for short. There were strangers who visited a long time ago, riding in similar flying houses, who used the word, but theirs were made of metal and not wood. Her name is Skyship Nimishi. There is still life within her, even though she's separated from the tree that birthed her, Nimiden."

"Trees that fly," Sofia said with a snort. "Now I've seen everything."

Ziton grinned. "There are tales, told to me by my grandmother, passed down from generation to generation, that would argue otherwise."

"Well, how about you folks come and get a proper meal and you can tell me all about it? You got food with you on that flying abomination? Don't want you weirdos to starve."

Sofia led them off to a nearby building with pink flowers growing around the edges. Ilden seemed much healthier than Nimiden and the trees around it. Maybe the blight had only spread a little ways so far. Maybe it would still be possible to stop it from spreading further.

"Make yourself at home," Sofia said, gesturing vaguely as she went inside. "Tree-spirits know everyone else does."

The building was large and well-lived-in, and a handful of scruffy children stopped their play to look up at the strangers as the entered. Ziton's feet sunk into rugs that he realized after a moment were made of fur. Startled, he took a step back into the doorway, bumping into Triko.

"Hey!" Triko grabbed the door frame to regain his balance. "Is there a problem?"

Ziton hissed quietly. "The floors are covered in animal skins."

"There are trees with different customs, Ziton," Triko said in exasperation. "Get over it."

"But what if she serves us animal flesh to eat?"

"Then you either eat it or you politely tell her you won't." Triko nudged him into the room. "Come on."

Reluctantly, Ziton stepped onto the fur rugs with a sigh.

The children swarmed around them as they came inside, one of them reaching out to touch Ziton's leaf-garments as if he hadn't seen them before. Upon a closer look, the children, too, were clad in animal skins. Ziton bit back a disgusted reflex. If he could not handle this, how was he to handle whatever strange things he might encounter out in the unknown skies?

"Don't mind the children," Sofia called from the kitchen. "We don't get many visitors here." She looked out and snapped, "Koraki! Don't touch. It's rude."

"Sorry, Sofia," the boy said, stepping away but not sounding contrite at all.

Sofia brought out a veritable feast and laid it out on a large table in the main room. There was seared animal flesh glazed in sauce, as Ziton had feared, but there were also nuts and fruits, both cooked and fresh. Gratefully, Ziton sat down on the bench and loaded up a wooden plate with applesauce, mixed nuts and dried berries, and some sort of green vegetable he couldn't identify.

"You're not going to have any sloth steak?" Koraki asked, looking over at his plate.

"No, I think I'll pass on it," Ziton said with strained politeness.

"You're from one of those trees that don't eat meat, aren't you," Sofia said.

"Yep," Triko said, spearing a slab of dripping flesh with a wooden fork and dropping it on his plate.

"Triko!" Ziton said, looking at him in horror.

"What?" Triko picked up his tableware. "When in Ilden, do as the Ildi do."

"Ugh," Ziton said, looking away disgustedly. "How can you eat that?"

"No need to be rude," Triko said, putting a bit of burnt animal flesh into his mouth and chewing.

"You're just doing this to annoy me, aren't you," Ziton said.

Triko swallowed and said to Sofia, "My compliments."

Ziton bit his lip, realizing that the others at the table had no problem with eating meat and that his outburst over Triko but not them really made no sense. "No offense," he muttered in embarrassment, and went to take a mouthful of the strange green fruit. It stung his mouth like fire, and he cried out and grabbed for a mug of milk, sloshing some of it over the side in his haste.

Once the burning sensation subsided, Ziton asked, "What under the leaves was that plant?"

"Peppers!" Koraki said eagerly. "If you don't like it, can I have the rest of yours?"

Ziton didn't argue, and scraped off the rest of his peppers onto Koraki's plate.

"I take it that you don't have peppers wherever you're from," Sofia said.

Ziton shook his head.

"Where are you from?" Koraki asked. "Where are you going?"

"We're from Nimiden," Triko answered. "As to where we're going? No idea. There are lands beyond the dawn, perhaps." He shrugged. "As it is, we wanted to get away from our dying tree."

"What happened to your tree?" Koraki asked.

"A blight," Ziton replied quietly. "We don't know why it happened, but Nimiden was dying, and there was infection in the trees around it. I don't know if it will eventually spread here. There is yet hope, perhaps. There may yet be a way to cure it, or prevent it. As it was, we grew a ship, to fly us away beyond the leaves, to find a new home somewhere beyond the trees."

"Well, I've got to wish you well with that," Sofia said. "Tree-spirits only know what you might find out there, and maybe even they don't. I'll send you packing with a good pile of food to make sure you don't starve." She flashed a mischievous grin and added, "Plenty of good dried meat."

Ziton groaned aloud, and Triko laughed.


	4. There are dangers in the skies

The healer waved his wand over Triko, muttering something. The latter lay on a leaf bed below decks on board Skyship Nimishi, his long, black hair splayed about his head.

"So, Soti, what is it?" Triko wondered.

"He ate a huge slab of sloth meat," Ziton said. "That surely made him ill."

Healer Sotiris shook his head. "No, he just ate too much, too fast."

"The peppers probably didn't help, either," Ziton added.

Triko groaned. "Well, Timi can head up the security team while I'm out of it."

"You will not be out for long," Sotiris said. "I must advise, Trikotos, that if you decide to sample the local cuisine in the future, that you take it in smaller amounts. And kindly refrain from mocking others for choosing not to do so." He left the room.

Triko said quietly to Ziton, "I'd best pay attention to the one who is really in charge around here."

Ziton didn't deign to respond.

Another head poked into the room. "Ziton, you might want to see this."

"What is it, Alexis?" Ziton wondered, following the young man into the storage hold.

Amidst the crates of food that Sofia had delivered to them sat a brown boy nibbling on a piece of jerky, who, upon seeing him, looked up with a completely unrepentant grin. Ziton immediately recognized him and groaned.

"Koraki, what are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd come along for the trip!" Koraki said cheerfully, hopping to his feet.

"And you hid yourself away on board without requesting permission," Ziton said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Do I need to ask?" Koraki wondered, popping the last bit of meat into his mouth.

"It's generally the polite thing to do, yes," Ziton said. "How old are you, even? You look like you couldn't be more than ten."

"Twelve!" Koraki insisted. "I'm not just a little fledgling!"

"Considering you've just taken flight, I'd say you are indeed a fledgling," Alexis put in.

"We're too far from Ilden to put this fledgling back in his nest," Ziton said.

"I'm not going to live this down, am I," Koraki said.

Alexis smirked. "Should've thought of that before stowing away in the hold."

"Now that you're here, is there any way you can make yourself useful?" Ziton asked. "Beyond eating the dried meat that Sofia insisted on foisting on us."

Koraki shrugged. "I'm good at getting into places people don't want me to be and finding out things people don't want me to know."

Ziton sighed and put his face in his palm. "I can see that. Fine. I can work with that." He went over to the window and looked out at the carpet of leaves below. "Alexis, did you notice there's some birds circling us?"

Alexis grunted. "They probably smelled the meat and thought they were in for a meal."

The two of them headed up to the deck, Koraki trailing behind them hesitantly. A flock of black birds cawed and dove at them, more vicious than Ziton had expected, intent upon not merely taking the meat that was already dead.

" _Kiratu!_ " Timi cried, slashing his wand toward one bird. The huge crow split in two, bisected by Timi's cutting curse and falling to the deck in two bloody pieces. "Where's Triko?"

"Below decks in the healing room, feeling ill," Ziton replied.

"He should be here fighting with us!" Timi scowled. " _Karashu!_ " A second bird squawked in pain, then tumbled to the deck, flattened and broken as though stepped on by an enormous foot.

Koraki stared wide-eyed at the dead birds, but mostly his eyes were fixated upon the warrior-mage and his wand and spells. Ziton wondered if he'd ever seen real magic being cast before.

" _Chabaru!_ " Timi pointed his wand at another bird, which exploded into a shower of black feathers.

"Timi, what in the name of the tree-spirits are you doing?" Triko asked, climbing up the stairs from the lower decks.

"I'm defending us from these evil birds!" Timi said. "What have you been doing? Help us!"

Triko swept his wand in an upward wave and said calmly, " _Takanu_." A shimmering, barely visible dome roofed the ship. Another bird dove in and bounced off the shield harmlessly.

Timi stared upwards as the birds tried again and again to get in and failed, and ultimately gave up, flying off to find easier targets. "I… hadn't thought of that."

"They were just birds, Timi," Triko told him wearily. "You didn't need to make them explode."

Timi looked to the deck sheepishly and put his wand away again.

"Meet every threat with what is necessary to neutralize it, and no further," Triko said. "Remember that. Now, I am going back below. My gut is not agreeing with me." He gestured toward the blood and feathers. "Someone clean this up, will you? Before it starts to stink." He went back downstairs.

" _Sutalu,"_ Alexis said quietly, pointing his wand toward the feathered corpses and lifting them over the side one by one.

Koraki approached Ziton and whispered, "What is that they were doing?"

"You haven't seen magic before?" Ziton asked. "But you lived in houses like us, that were grown from the trees themselves."

Koraki shook his head, still awed. "Maybe, but I've never seen or heard of anything like it, myself. People doing things just by saying a word and waving a stick? It's like a miracle. I never really believed in the tree-spirits, but seeing this? Were they invoking them somehow?"

"Something like that," Ziton said. "There is power in wands. There is power in words. There is power in each person, inherent in themselves. How much power comes from each is a question scholars might debate until they turn blue."

"Can everyone do magic?" Koraki asked. "Do you think I could be able to do magic, too?"

"Maybe," Ziton said with a grin. "If you're really interested in learning, maybe one of us could apprentice you. We guard our words carefully, for each of them has power."

"But I heard the words they were saying perfectly clear," Koraki protested. "Well, some of them were quiet about it, but that one, Timi, certainly wasn't."

Ziton smirked. "Yes, you aren't supposed to shout them. You aren't supposed to flaunt your power like that." Ziton shook his head. "There is more to the words. You could speak the sounds, but without understanding and intent, they would do nothing. Still, to know the true names of things is to give you power over them."

"I don't really understand," Koraki said, looking off to the sky. "I don't know how just words could do that."

Ziton chuckled and stood next to him, leaning against the leafy railing. "There is more out there in the world than you could ever imagine. I only hope to see some small part of it."


End file.
